French Patent No. 70.00,893 dated Jan. 12, 1970, teaches a process and apparatus for producing dry solid molasses, in pieces or as powder, from raw cane or beet molasses. According to this process, the procedure begins in an appropriate device with elaborate drying of the molasses, keeping the dried molasses melted at a temperature at which it exhibits low viscosity, said molasses then being fed into another device ensuring this cooling so as to solidify the divided elements, making it possible to obtain dry, hard pieces or even a powder.
The installation described in this French patent essentially comprises an apparatus for drying liquid molasses and an apparatus for dividing and cooling the molten molasses coming out of the drying apparatus so as to produce dry molasses solidified in pieces, grains or powder.
The accomplishment of such a process with the aid of such an installation has not made it possible to achieve satisfactory results, however. The production of pieces of dried molasses is accomplished simultaneously with its cooling either by means of a crusher or by means of an atomizer. The crusher reheats the molasses, keeping it in a melted state, and, in the storage chamber located at the outlet of the evaporator and upstream from the atomizer, degradation of the dry molasses takes place as a result of the temperature, resulting in formation of a form. This degradation is also known as the "Maillard phenomenon".
In addition, even when as a result of precautions which are incompatible with industrial production, one succeeds in obtaining molasses which is dry and in the form of baggable powder or pieces, the latter cannot be stored for more than two hours, even if the bag is closed.
This instability of the powder grains which rapidly absorb humidity is due to the fact that the droplets of melted molasses which gave rise to them did not have a chance to become dehydrated and cooled at the core, but simply on the surface, and as a result the grains are very sensitive to atmospheric humidity.